Signs: Personalised Number Plates

For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog.

Monday Murals - Subiaco III

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks Sami

Murals painted for the Street art festival " "No more blank walls", organized by artist Jerome Davenport, and which took place from the 17th to the 27th of October 2024 in the inner city suburb of  Subiaco (also known as Subi) in Perth. 

Painted by Queensland muralist Jarad Danby this "Still life with pears" can be found on the corner of Xantis Lane with Kannis Lane.

I didn't realize until I was uploading these photos that the pears in the photos above weren't fully painted, I presumed this mural was finished when I photographed it! So I had to look for a photo of the finished mural and could only find one from the artist, with him standing on the adjacent roof.

Monthly Wrap-up - October & Signs - Part II

Please check Tom's signs from around the world.

You can read Part I here.

Saturday 11th - Jose and I spent the day at home, and when Karina and Thomas returned from work at around 5pm, we all headed out for the usual power walk around their neighbourhood. The parks in-between the residential estates are beautifully maintained.

I walked down to the beach to photograph the sunset

After dinner we dressed up to go to a Candlelight piano concert at the Four Seasons Hotel. The 1 hour performance in the glow of hundreds of candles was calming and enjoyable.

Sunday 12th - Explored the Museum of Islamic Art (or MIA) on the Corniche, an architectural icon designed by renowned Chinese-American architect I.M.Pei, (who also designed the Louvre pyramid) in 2008 when he was already 91 years old!

The gigantic atrium features a curved double staircase leading to the first floor, a circular metal chandelier that echoes the curve. Above the atrium is an oculus within a faceted dome. The patterned floors were inspired by Arabic geometric patterns. 

Across the atrium an impressive 45 metre tall window offering spectacular views across to West Bay.

    

We began our visit with coffee and cake at the Cafe, sitting on the sofas with panoramic views of West Bay's skyscrapers behind us.

Karina and I on the sofas with the West Bay high-rises behind us

Three hours slipped by as we explored the exhibitions on the various floors.

      

We exited into a courtyard from where we were greeted by the glow of the sunset.

On the way to the car park, a driver of the free golf-car rides took us for a loop around MIA Park (next to the Museum), giving us a different view of the museum from the waterfront.

Museum seen from MIA park

Monday 13th - Visited Qanat Quartier at the Pearl Island - a pastel coloured Venice inspired residential area, with bridges and canals. 

Had lunch at "Sushi Ponto" - a tiny Japanese restaurant, then walked around the area discovering its charm.

The Piano staircase

We spotted the Katara towers from Qanat Quartier

Cute villas overlooking the canal

After our long walk nothing better than rewarding ourselves with the most decadent cheesecake I've tasted - with various layers of biscuit and topped with a "real" mango syrup poured right at the table - at "Volume Cafe".

Karina and Jose sitting outside the coffee shop while I took a photo from the bridge

We walked past the "Nine Lives Cat Cafe" where you can pet the various cats while having coffee

On the way home we stopped at a supermarket to buy Arabian sweets to take to my family in Portugal.

Arabian sweets

In the evening, Karina took us to Al-Wakrah Souq - a reconstructed seaside marketplace by the seaside, 19km south of Doha. She had booked a table at Copacabana, a simple beach restaurant known for its fresh seafood. Thomas had gone to a conference in Malaysia so it was just the 3 of us.

The balmy evening inviting us to sit outside - but we soon realized why we were the only ones! A clowder (just learned this word for "a group of cats") gathered around our table. I felt sorry for the poor cats, but I couldn't feed them. They might have been fed by he employees as every time one of them came out they would follow them.

The owner, an Indian gentleman, came out to ask us where we were from and if we were enjoying the food. He told us the story behind the restaurant's Brazilian name - he had been to Brazil to watch a football championship, visited Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, and loved the name, so chose it for his restaurant :)

A couple of older Qataris walking in also stopped to ask where we were from, and as usual, the moment we said we were Portuguese, they would immediately exclaim: "Oh Ronaldo! or CR7!". 

Tuesday 14th - Our last visit for this trip was to Education City - a vast 12 square kilometres (4.6 sq mi) hub of research and innovation inaugurated in 1997, and also home to campuses of eight international universities.

Karina now works from an office at Qatar University (in Education City) in a project to reduce CO2 emissions on sea vessels.

She was finishing work about 3pm, so we took an Uber to the National Library, where we could get internet to let her know when we arrived.

The National Library of Qatar 

She picked us up from the library, then parked the car and we walked to the Convention Centre & the outdoor Ceremonial Court, where significant events such as Qatar National Day are held. On both sides are intricate latticed pergolas with a stage in the centre.

Next we headed to the Hamad Bin Khalifa University and the Education City Mosque (Minaretein). This exquisite building was designed by Iraqi architect and calligrapher Taha Al Hiti. The minarets feature vertical calligraphy sweeping upwards, and the mosque is supported by five pillars, each representing one of the Five Pillars of Islam. 

Outdoors, four streams flow towards the central garden of the building, representing the four rivers of Paradise promised in the Qur'an - water, honey, milk and wine.

View of the Mosque (left) and University building (right) - photo from the net

The two towers adorned with Arabic calligraphy are designed to look like two intertwined ribbons representing light and knowledge.

It's a stunning building, and I loved the very peaceful inner courtyard garden.

Afterwards, we crossed the street into Oxygen Park for a walk -  lots of murals here :)

We then hopped onto the free Education City tram to the Stadium just to try it out.

The system includes 3 lines, 24 stops, and 2 Metro stations serving the Education City area.

Jose inside the air-conditioned tram stop, a tram stop, Education City Stadium

"Come Together" - 12mt high Sculpture by Korean Choi Jeong Hwa - for the 2022 Fifa World Cup

Then it was time to head home! Jose cooked dinner for our last evening at Karina's- Prawn and Fish Curry.

Prawn and Fish curry

Various stray cats around the estate where Karina lives. In the first photo was a young mother that had 3 kittens (2 of them in the photo, one under the car). There are people that feed them and I also bought kitten kibble as they looked too scrawny.

Wednesday 15th - Karina drove us to the airport for our 11 AM flight to Lisbon. Fortunately check-in is mostly done at the self-service machines in a couple of minutes. After weighing the bags and dropping them at the conveyor belts, we were ready to head to the Departure lounge. 

We had enough time to visit the "Orchard", the indoor tropical garden, for a bit of relaxation before our flight.

        

Various aspects of the Orchard - "Falcon and Glove" by Gillie and Marc 

We came across this very quirky 6-ton bronze sculpture - "The Wild Table of Love in Doha" by Gillie and Marc (British and Australian artists) showing endangered animals sharing a table.

We boarded our flight to Lisbon and with 7 hours to spare I watched 3 movies:

Heads of State - Action/Comedy from 2025 - the UK prime minister and the US President become targets of a global threat, and their rivalry turns to teamwork to stop a conspiracy. With Idris Elba & John Cena.            A big tick from me!

You are cordially invited - Romantic Comedy from 2025 - Two weddings are accidentally booked for the same day at the same venue and each bridal party is challenged with preserving their special day. With Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell.                   A bit too silly for me!

A Royal in Paradise - Romance from 2023 - A writer struggling with writer's block after a break-up takes a tropical holiday in the hope of finding inspiration and meets Prince Alexander, who needs some distance from his upcoming duty to marry royalty.                 Simple but enjoyable

 

We landed in Lisbon at 17h00. My sister and brother in law picked us up and drove us to my parent's place in Cascais.

Later that evening the whole family went to dinner at a Thai Restaurant in Cascais where we met up with our Australian friends Lido & Wendy. Before heading home we stopped for ice-creams at the famous Santini's.

Thursday 16th - I had my first dental appointment in Cascais. Unfortunately the clinic had suffered a hacking attack and my file had disappeared, so I had to redo the scan and discuss the procedure again. 

It was decided I would return on the 23rd and instead of removing 5 teeth at once, the dentist would extract 3 on the right side first. Then, if everything healed well by the time I returned to remove the stitches, she would proceed with removing the remaining two teeth on the left side.

Saturday 18th - The whole family drove to Lisbon to visit the 3D Art Museum. It's a small museum, but it was great fun, and not just for my little great-nieces, every adult had a smile on their face!

Time for lunch, and we headed to Parque das Nações (Park of Nations) also commonly known as Expo - the former site of the "Expo 98" and settled for "Rucula" an Italian restaurant.

The Vasco da Gama Bridge and the Expo cable car

The Portugal Pavilion (below) for the 1998 Expo in Lisbon, was designed by Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, and featured a large suspended concrete canopy over an open public plaza.

Various sculptures at Expo

I had wanted to see this sculpture by Portuguese artist Bordalo II - the Iberian lynx, is created from plastic waste, and is part of the artist's "Big Trash Animals" series, turning trash into environmental art.

We ended the visit with a ride on the cable car! It was fun :)

Friday 31st - We got a ride into Lisbon with my sister and brother in law, and they dropped us at Colombo Shopping Centre, one of the biggest in the Iberian Peninsula with over 300 stores, 60 restaurants, 8 cinema rooms, etc.

The aqueduct of Aguas Livres on the way to Lisbon 

We were meeting up with a friend of one of our friends in Perth, to deliver a gift. We met the elderly gentleman, had a lovely conversation with him and walked around the shopping. Then we had lunch traditional Portuguese food at one of the eateries - Codfish in cream sauce for me, and Duck rice for Jose and couldn't resist dessert - Creme caramel for Jose and Biscuit pudding for me.

We returned to Cascais by train and it was already  turning into quite a stormy day!

And that again another avalanche of photos from our trip to Qatar and Portugal.

More to come for November.